Aspect Marks One-Year Anniversary of Global Strategic Alliance and Equity Investment With Microsoft

CHELMSFORD, Mass., 30 March 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced that it has marked the one-year anniversary of its global strategic alliance with Microsoft Corp. Since launching the strategic alliance in March 2008, Aspect has achieved many significant milestones, including delivering new product offerings, launching a UC Services practice, garnering extensive Microsoft certifications, managing a leading-edge rollout of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 across Aspect, and winning new UC customers. Together, the two companies have been focused on their shared vision of software-powered UC to help organizations address their communications needs across the enterprise and in the contact center.

“The Microsoft-Aspect alliance, and Microsoft’s equity investment in Aspect, is a strong, joint commitment to UC, and to connecting the enterprise and the contact center,” said Melanie Turek, industry principal, Frost & Sullivan. “Such alliances are critical for customers and companies that want to quickly leverage a UC strategy to streamline their business processes with communications.

With Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 and the Aspect® Unified IP™ Microsoft .NET-based platform product, companies can seamlessly bring UC to the enterprise and to the contact center.”

Working closely with Microsoft, Aspect met a number of key milestones throughout the year, including:

• Aspect launched a UC Services practice and secured an early customer win with Quicken Loans Inc. Aspect’s UC Services practice helps organizations identify the right opportunities for UC across the enterprise to improve business and communications processes and navigate implementation obstacles. The UC Services practice completed its first deployment of a UC RapidStart voice pilot at Quicken Loans Inc. The Aspect UC Services team worked closely with the Quicken Loans IT teams to install and configure Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and integrate its voice capabilities into the PBX system in less than one week.

• Aspect introduced Aspect Unified IP 6.6 with the new Ask an Expert feature that utilizes the instant messaging and presence technology available in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. With this feature, agents can identify available experts in the enterprise based on specific skill sets to address customer inquiries, therefore streamlining business processes and improving first-call resolution. This is the first of several Aspect product releases on the roadmap as part of the Aspect-Microsoft strategic alliance that will provide tight platform-level integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

• Aspect initiates global company deployment of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. To date, Aspect has completed deployment of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 at the company’s headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. and an office site in San Jose, Calif. The sites have completely migrated to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 for all voice and voicemail services, audio and Web conferencing, instant messaging (IM) and presence. Aspect also retired its PBX in these locations for all employee peer-to-peer and corporate calling services. The company will see aggressive ROI numbers, including reduced conference calling costs of $75,000 per month and additional cost savings resulting from the company’s use of session initiation protocol (SIP) Trunking.

• Aspect is recognized as one of the first voice specialized partners for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Microsoft has certified Aspect as a Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 Voice specialization partner for the Microsoft Unified Communications Solutions competency. Aspect received this certification following the successful completion of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) internal pilot for Office Communication Server 2007 R2 Voice specialization. To date, approximately 100 Aspect employees have been certified.

• New companies choose Aspect contact center solution with Microsoft UC. Global Crossing recently purchased Aspect Unified IP 6.6 and is deploying it across its contact center operations to help improve customer communication and satisfaction. Global Crossing chose Aspect Unified IP largely based on Microsoft and Aspect’s shared vision of UC and how the contact center fits into Global Crossing’s enterprise-wide UC initiatives. Global Crossing is using Aspect Unified IP for advanced call routing capabilities to intelligently transfer callers to the proper agents based on their skill sets and customer data gathered by back-end applications. The agents use the call blending capabilities to respond to incoming calls and customer questions on subscriptions while also using the outbound capabilities to increase sales.

• Three customer briefing centers showcase UC capabilities. Aspect opened three customer briefing centers in London, Boston and Singapore. These offices now have the capabilities to demonstrate all Aspect unified communication applications so customers and prospects can experience first-hand the benefits of Microsoft UC and the Aspect UC applications for the contact center. The customer briefing centers also offer remote demonstration capabilities for access through the Internet and around the globe.

“The Aspect-Microsoft strategic alliance is an excellent way for companies to take the unified communications journey. Aspect has not just delivered on its promise of unified communications capabilities for the contact center and the enterprise, but has also proved its commitment to giving customers tangible solutions that deliver real results,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president, Unified Communications Group at Microsoft Corp. “Joint customer wins with industry leaders such as Quicken Loans, Inc. and Global Crossing are a testament to this. Through our alliance, Microsoft and Aspect are making a statement — that Aspect’s powerful software and services capabilities coupled with Microsoft unified communications technologies supply the tools a company needs to see real business results from deploying unified communications.”

As the alliance moves into its second year, the companies will continue to build momentum in product development and customer implementations. Aspect and Microsoft will be focused on:

• Developing additional product offerings to power UC capabilities. Aspect will introduce two new Aspect Unified IP releases with additional UC functionality as well as two PerformanceEdge™ releases offering tighter integration to Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

• Expanding Microsoft UC expertise. Aspect will have 200 fully trained and Microsoft UC certified employees by June 2009, including individuals in Aspect® Professional Services, Aspect® Technical Services, Aspect® Education Services, sales and IT.

• Completing the global Aspect rollout of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Aspect will complete its global rollout of Microsoft Office Communications Server to approximately 1,800 workers, including its contact center representatives, this year. This will enable Aspect agents to identify appropriate experts in the enterprise based on skill set, and hence properly and efficiently address customer inquiries. “Microsoft and Aspect have successfully achieved a remarkable number of accomplishments in the first year of the alliance, but we know this is just the beginning of achieving our shared UC vision,” said Jim Foy, chief executive officer, Aspect. “We’re seeing tremendous interest from both customers and prospects in our new UC applications powered by Aspect Unified IP and PerformanceEdge, as well as our comprehensive UC Services offerings. We’re confident that as more businesses look for ways to lower costs and streamline business processes, they’ll turn to Microsoft and Aspect to leverage UC and truly transform the way they communicate.”

About Aspect Unified IP
Aspect Unified IP is an IT-ready Microsoft .NET Web services platform product that unites customer contact capabilities to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies.

About PerformanceEdge
PerformanceEdge is an IT-ready Microsoft .NET Web services platform product that synchronizes workforce optimization capabilities to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies.

Aspect® Professional Services delivers unified communications (UC) capabilities in the contact center and throughout the enterprise. Aspect consultants help organizations identify the right opportunities, navigate implementation obstacles and get the right results from UC with services that span conception through completion. From improving individual productivity and heightening collaboration to communications-enabling business processes and transforming enterprise communications, Aspect provides experienced guidance at every step of an organization’s UC journey.

About Aspect
Aspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center. Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.